fome of his measures were erroneous, and that he made corruption too much the guide and ftandard of his actions. Indeed, this, and his playing the fool with Jacobitifm, and his keeping it as a ftalking-horse to himfelf in its power, and not attacking its headquarters, as it has been effectually done fince, seems the moft blameworthy part of this minifter's character, who otherwife was a very able one, a friend to liberty, and understood the conftitution of his country well. You never can fo effectually take any principle from man by power, force, or any method, as you do when you take it from their minds; and those people you diveft of this opinion you make more eafy, chearful in their mind, and more capable of ferving you. power When he thought measures wrong or corrupt, he cared not who was the author, however great or powerful he might be; witnefs his boldly attacking the great duke of Marlborough in the houfe of lords, about his forage and army-contracts in Flanders, in the very zenith of his and popularity; though, in all other refpects, he was the moft able renowned general of his time. He deferved, and indeed he was nobly and amply rewarded by his country. The duke of Argyle poffeffed great public places and honourable employ. ments, which did not influence him in his way of acting, or voting in parliament, as he fhewed upon feveral occafions, by refigning them when he thought any thing was required of him to comply with that he did not think right. In this he is cenfured by fome, as too hafty; for why should a man punish himself when he acts upon principle, and deprive his country of his fervice, because he thinks another doth wrong? If he was miftaken, it must be as little as any man, because he had a good head and heart. In the houfe of lords he fpoke well, with a firm, manly, and noble eloquence, and feems to deferve the character given of him by Pope : Argyle the state's whole thunder born to wield, And shake alike the fenate and the field. Character of the Duke of Berwick. ' From the fame. THE duke of Berwick was nafon of James II. by Mrs. Arabella Churchill, fifter to the great duke of Marlborough, He followed the fate of his father, and came into France after the revolution with James II. who retired thither, to put himself under the protection of his friend and ally Lewis XIV. His ally he was, becaufe he refufed to fign the treaty of Augfburgh, in a general combination, to lower the ambition and greatnefs of the French monarch, agreed to by most of the European powers, and, it is faid, even by the Pope himfelf. This refufal, it is thought, haftened the revolution; for at that time the prince of Orange's views to the crown of Great Britain, if he had any, muft have been very diftant; and it is thought that king William was better pleased with his acceffion to the crown of Great Britain, from the fituation and power power it gave him to attack the overgrown power of France, than from any real fatisfaction as being king of Great Britain: and this appears more probable, from the anfwer he gave to the conventions of the ftates, when they offered to make him king conjointly with his wife, but only for his life: "I refpect the princefs, but will not hold my crown on her apronftrings." Such was the native love that the Naffau prince of Orange bore his country, perhaps founded upon a good deal of refentment, naturally caufed by the attack upon Holland by Lewis XIV. in Charles II's reign, when that republic, by the rapid victories of the French monarch, was very near deftruction. He was not fuccefsful, in general, in his wars with France, but laid the foundation for the more fuccefsful .one of his fucceffor queen Anne. James II. was received in France, and fupported in a king-like manner during all his life at the caftle of St. Germain. Lewis XIV. thewed upon all occafions the utmoft friendship for him. Indeed, the two monarchs were in fome measure directed by the fame principles in religion, which ever unite friendship; and both were too much, at that time, governed by the fame fet of priests. Lewis XIV's great, and otherwife moft noble character, was much ble. mished by being in fuch fubjection to them. James II. was dethroned by them, from his own weaknefs in too precipitately liftening and following their councils, in miftaking obftinacy and wrong-headednefs for firmnefs and refolution; for zeal without knowledge ever counteracts itself. I The duke of Berwick was recommended to the court of France by his fuperior merit; he attained all the military honours and dignities his moft Chriftian Majefty could confer on him; he was marshal of France, knight of the Holy Ghoft, duke and peer of France, grandee of Spain, commander in chief of the French armies; in all which stations his behaviour was fuch, that few equalled, perhaps none furpaffed him. He lived in an age when the renowned prince of Orange, and many other of the greatest men, commanded against him. His courage was of the cool, fteady kind; always poffeffing himself, taking all advantages, not foolishly, rafhly, or wantonly throwing away the lives of his foldiers. He kept up on all occafions the moft ftrict difcipline, and did not fpare punishment among his foldiers for marauding and other crimes, when properly deferved; for which fome rafh, filly, in. confiderate people have found fault, and blamed him. They were hard put to it to find a fault in this great man; for furely an army without ftrict discipline, good order, and due fubordination, will never do their duty, as all hiftories and times evince; and they would be little better (confidering the fort of men armies must be compofed of) than a powerful fet of banditti and thieves. This, then, in the writer's opinion, is far from blameable, but a moft praife worthy part of his character. If he were ftrict and exact in his command, and the prevention of wrongs by others, he was moft juft in him. felf; not raifing unneceffary con tributions tributions, and promoting pillage, in order to enrich himself, as many generals have formerly done before his time. He has been reflected upon by the very zealous and violent adherents of the Stuart family, for not being fufficiently attached to that party, which was his own family. But by a cool examination of his actions, which are ftub. born things, and the beft index of the mind of a fenfible man, it will appear, that his behaviour in this particular was, as in moft parts of his life, fenfible and juft. When he accepted of employments, received honours, dignities, and became a naturalized French. man, he thought it his duty, as an honest man, to become a Frenchman, and a real fubject to the monarch who gave him bread; and to be, or not to be, in the intereft of the Stuart family, according to the will and commands of the fovereign whom he ferved, and in the intereft of France according to time and circumftances; for there is no ferving two mafters well. But when ordered by his king to be in that family's intereft, he acted with the greateft fincerity, and took the most effectual and fenfible methods to ferve that unhappy house, as the following anecdote, if true, and it has great appearance and probability on its fide, proves. The duke of Marlborough, after the figning of the treaty of Utrecht, was cenfured by the British parliament for fome of the army contracts in relation to bread and forage; upon which he retired into France and it was then credi. bly afferted, the duke of Marlborough was brought over to the intereft of the Stuart family; for it is now paft a doubt that queen Anne had a very ferious intention of having her brother upon the throne of England after her death; and feveral circumftances, as well as the time of that duke's landing in England, make many people believe he was gained over to the Stuart party. If the duke of Berwick was, directly or indirectly, the means of gaining his uncle over to that intereft, he more effectually ferved it than that rafh mock army of unhappy gentlemen, who were taken prifoners at Prefton in 1715, had it in their power to do. In a word, the duke of Berwick was, without being a bigot, a moral and religious man, and fhewed, by his life and actions, that morality and religion are very compatible and confiftent with the life of a statesman and a great general; and if they were oftener united in thofe two profeffions, it would be much happier for the rest of mankind. He was killed by a cannon-ball, in doing his duty at the fiege of Philipfburgh, in 1738. So died the marshal of Berwick, ripe in years, full of dignities, honours, and glory. Sic tranfit gloria mundi. N. B. Lewis XIV. before his *The very day or day after the death of queen Anne. prince, prince, I believe Europe will come to its fuccour; but fhould we be abandoned, and left to ourfelves, if vanquished, I then fall, and fhall perish with my country. Character of the Duke of Ormond. From the fame. THI HIS duke was bleffed with a moft noble fortune, and it fell into very good hands; for no perfon was of a more generous hofpitable difpofition: he was the most popular man of his time, head of the ancient, opulent, and numerous family of the Butlers, both an English and an Irish duke, commander in chief of the English army in Flanders, when the great duke of Marlborough, by the intrigues of the party that then prevailed in England, was recalled home. He was Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and I believe of Dublin, knight of the garter, and had all the honours conferred on him that his country could beftow; and his princely generous difpofition became them weli, and in fome meafure fupported his understanding, which when analyzed from real facts, was but weak, and not truly fincere and hone, but, like great part of mankind, not very moral. He received honours, great places of truft and profit, from King William, queen Anne, and of courfe was obliged to take the teft oath of allegiance and abjuration to thofe refpective princes: yet at the fame time he encouraged Jacobitifm, and, among his friends, profeffed himself the greatest friend and adherent to the houfe of Stuart. This is repugnant to fincerity, ho nefty, and, I may venture to fay, religion, which ever ought to be affociated together; because it is profeffing one thing, and being, or pretending to be, of another opinion. It is weak, because it is deftructive of the fchemes and meafures intended to be accomplished and brought about it may be faid to divide oneself against onefelf, and of courfe one's own ftrength and force is weakened, by endeavouring to demolish with one hand what one builds with the other. When he was lord lieutenant of Ireland, he made, or occafioned to be made, many of the penal laws that are most hurtful to the Irish Roman Catholics. This was not honeft, or grateful, because it was hurting those who were his best friends. It was weak, and not politic, being directly oppofite to that maxim, if you have a mind effectually to ferve yourfelf, fling power into the hands of your friends: and he, by his behaviour, weakened and difenabled thofe people from affifting him fo much as they might have done, and by whom he expected to be fupported. He did not fuffer fo much by his attainder as many others that acted with more determined fincerity and refolution; because his brother, the earl of Arran, a very good fort of man, enjoyed and poffeffed great part of his very opulent fortune, which enabled him to perform what was dictated by brotherly affection and honefty, in paying him annually a fufficient fum to live in a moft princely manner at Avignon, where he died; from whence he was brought, and buried in Westminster-Abbey. Upon Upon the whole, it is thought From the fame. by many, that if George I. who Character of Cardinal de Fleury. was in himself a humane and compaffionate prince, had not been fo more.. POPE. much fet against him, he would Peace is my delight, not FLEURY'S have accepted of his fervices, when he made a tender and offer of them, upon his landing at Greenwich. With all his foibles and weak neffes, he might have become a very good fubject, and a useful member to fociety, particularly to Ireland, his native country, when he had feen his errors; for to do the Irish juftice, with whom the writer is well acquainted, ingratitude doth not feem to be among their national vices. That he would have seen his errors, and have corrected them, there is the greatest probability and reafon to think, because it is credibly afferted, and I believe known, that he abfolutely refufed, directly or indirectly, to be concerned in any, of the confufions and troubles that happened in his country in the year 1745. Why not change his opinions, or correct his errors? It is never too late to mend, or own you have been in the wrong, which is next to being in the right. Some of his friends aver, that he never externally profeffed a thing, but what he internally believed at the time, and was fin. cere: this is very difficult to credit, as it rarely happens in fuch frequent changes; efpecially as he feldom veered but when his intereft or power was thereby enlarged: but if it be true, it only fhews a weakness, and a mutability of dif. pofition liable to the influence of others. CA Ardinal Fleury was a very good and intelligent minif ter, and, upon the whole, purfued the real intereft of France. He was honeft, fincere, religious, and moral; qualifications and virtues which, when united (and it is to be wished they were oftener found in minifters) will ever, without even extraordinary and over-fhining abilities and talents, make ftatefmen ferve their country the better; because they then act upon principle, and think they are accountable for their actions to more than man, and have more than that vague and vain love of fame and popularity, or fear of punishment in this world, to incite and fpur them to the performance and execution of good in them. felves, and the prevention of evil in others; all which minifters have much in their power to do, when power falls into the hands of men of abilities, application, and good morals; which must ever take their fpring from real religion, and a belief and hope of a future reward, and the fear of the like pu nifhment. Such was Cardinal Fleury in the beginning of his ap pearance in public, then preceptor to Lewis XV. and during that time he instilled into his prince thofe real principles of religion which very apparently, upon many occafions, animate that monarch. He was a good minifter to France, because E 2 |